Discussing Gilgamesh

This past week I finished the first book of the term for Prof. R.'s English class (and with that accomplishment comes a three-page analytical essay, due next Monday for an in-class, peer review of the piece). I have never read any other versions of Gilgamesh, but David Ferry's rendering of the ancient Sumerian epic sounded good to me. I enjoyed reading the poem so much that I raced ahead one evening before bed (without my pencil in hand), finished the book, and so had to re-read the second half come Friday in order to solidify the narrative in my head.

The English class isn't so much a lecture as it is a discussion: A discussion of the finer points of the narrative, and the overall structure of the plot; a time where students can bring up questions they have about the text---or where they can argue with one another (today two of us got into a minor tiff over whether Gilgamesh, the actual character, was static or dynamic; Prof. R. made us lay out our respective defenses very logically, but I don't think we ever arrived at a satisfactory conclusion). I didn't expect to learn so very much from this class format. Not that I wasn't looking forward to it, but students' opinions aren't exactly what we might call "professional stamps of approval". I like it, though. I like hearing their thoughts, and speaking mine. I like the shared moments of discovery, and the way our professor nods his head and lets us talk, and the way he plants questions and never quite answers them in class because he knows we need to think it out and come to our own conclusions---because with this sort of thing, who knows exactly what the right answer is?

Of course this means sticking our necks out sometimes. We won't always agree with each other. And we tell each other this. Like I said, it happened this morning. But that's half the delight of the thing. The disagreements are what charge the conversations and lend a sense of importance to the most mundane explorations of plot device and character development.

The discussion format (and most of my classes here have at least an element of this) gives me a reason to read well, to take the time to comprehend the text not only with my mind, but with my heart as well, and then to form those thoughts into live words. I had forgotten that learning is not, after all, a strictly solitary pursuit. (And that is so easy to forget.) I had forgotten that other people's ideas, their words, are vital to developing a well-rounded perspective of a text. It is partly the community of learners that makes learning itself so stimulating.